Village Tries To Get Drop On Local Pigeon Feeder

April 22, 1988|By Neil H. Mehler.

In what could be called the great pigeon-dropping caper, a Lombard resident charges that village officials conducted undercover surveillance of his home in an attempt to catch him violating a law against feeding flocks of the birds.

Paul Cisneros says the pigeon police have even snapped photographs of his wife sowing grass seed.

Last October, the Village Board adopted an anti-pigeon feeding ordinance that was widely acknowledged to be aimed at Cisneros and his wife, Gloria.

It was prompted by complaints from angry neighbors who said that a flock estimated at more than 100 birds had descended on their neighborhood, creating a nuisance. On Thursday the village cited Cisneros in court, accusing him of violating the no-feeding ordinance.

The couple`s attorney, Walter P. Maksym, says this is a case of government run amok, trampling on the constitutional rights of individuals.

Cisneros, who has fed birds for many years at his Collen Road home and at undeveloped areas in Du Page County, said he put out feed during the winter after the ordinance was adopted. ``I cannot just stand there and watch them starve to death,`` he said.

Although Cisneros said he has now stopped feeding the pigeons that once perched on his neighbors` roofs, leaving their droppings on buildings and lawns, other residents said most of the birds are still around, looking for handouts.

The village took Cisneros to court in Glendale Heights Thursday. He was given until May 19 to file motions in the matter. Maksym said that in May, 1986, two neighbors, Michael Allred and Joan Devitt, sued the Cisneroses to get them to halt the bird feeding. But six months later, Judge John S. Teschner dismissed the case in Du Page County Circuit Court.

Cisneros said village employees have been sneaking around his neighborhood, taking pictures of birds on his lawn from various vantage points. When his wife spread grass seed, that was photographed as an act of bird feeding, he said.

Village President Richard C. Arnold said the Lombard code-enforcement officer, acting on neighbors` complaints, photographed the Cisneros home so there would be evidence to uphold a citation. ``He (Cisneros) asked us to put up speakers to broadcast airplane and car noise, which pigeons don`t like,``

Arnold said. But the mayor added that the village should not have to spend money to chase the birds, which he said are a health hazard.

The neighborhood`s pigeon population increased to 120 or so from just a handful almost overnight last year when the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and other governmental agencies started road construction work nearby, destroying pigeon roosts, Cisneros said. The birds eventually found a haven in his neighborhood, he said.

Maksym said of his client, ``This guy is a real human being; he`s got a heart that is extraordinary.``

He added, ``There have been pigeons all over Lombard for years. Lombard should handle its own pigeon problem. They came to his property.``